Hellfire

black midi - Hellfire

The technical abilities are flirting with the possibility of arrogance. Extremely ambitious, on the flip side undoubtedly self indulgent but still feels annoyingly honest. They truly have the talent to make whatever they like knowing it will sound majestically grandeur.

black midi’s third LP takes the exploding experimental rock scene to a new level, fleshing out the Jazz / Prog rock ideas that were planted in ‘Cavalcade’. Hellfire’s hellish tempo left me on the edge of my seat engrossed in this unfamiliar extraordinary soundscape.

Sometimes you’ll hyperfocus on a singular instrument and be left amazed that a human is playing that it’s borderline subnormal. Take the riff on ‘Sugar/Tzu’ as a mind bending example. Extraordinary music. The guitar being played at the pace of the intensity of the boxing match in the track's concept.

King Greep’s hellish concept in full force on ‘The Defence’ following a Christian Pimp with a saviour complex which is one of the most imaginative and left field narratives I’ve ever let a song take me on. It’s bizarre, it’s chaos, its turmoil and very fucking fun.

Will forever be an excited fan of this little odd bunch. Album of the year contender for sure.

9/10